Who We Are

The Samuel Ministry was founded in 2012 by Samuel Schmidt, a pastor, seminarian, and aspiring author. As Samuel pursued his education at the seminary level, he began to notice a deep disconnect between formal training and laymen. While there was an abundance of material available for those in higher education, it became increasingly difficult to find good resources for the average leader in churches.

According to our founder, a specific situation led to the creation of this ministry.

“I was pastoring when a young man approached me. He shared he felt called to preach. My heart was overjoyed at such obedience to the Word of God! I knew this young man must get diligent training. I went back to my office – to my personal library – to find resources to give him. I spent a number of minutes searching through my books and courses, desperately seeking something to give him. My library was filled with deep, technical, theological works and treatises. There were, however, few simple resources and guides for someone recently called to preach.

This man didn’t need an elaborate exegesis of Romans 9, or a theological work on why some scholars refuse to accept the latter half of Mark 16. This man needed a simple guide to teach him how to study the Bible. I became all the more discontent, after visiting my local Christian bookstore, only to find its shelves filled with more of the same! Where were the study guides for a man called to preach? Where were the simple books that taught a man how to study? Where were the pamphlets, encouraging the man of God and teaching him how to prepare a sermon? Oh sure, you would find one for every three hundred theological works, but when ninety-nine out of one-hundred Christians are not called to seminary, is that a fair balance?

I decided, then and there, I would create a ministry dedicated to teaching believers the foundational truths of God’s Word; that sermon preparation and delivery books could be concise and practical without exceeding one-hundred pages. Bi-vocational pastors don’t need an eight-hundred page volume on the significance of one Greek word which scholars can’t even agree on. Such theological works do have their place in ministry, and the pastor may work himself to them in time. What a bi-vocational pastor needs is a small booklet encouraging him in his prayer, preparation, and preaching ministry. No more, no less.

Discipleship has become far too complicated.
It’s time to make it simple again.

This is the Samuel Ministry, and this is my heart.”

-Samuel Schmidt

The Samuel Ministry focuses on:

How to study the Bible

How to craft “Simple Sermons”

How to teach “Simple Lessons”

How to pray

How to make disciples

Ultimately, even in a godless age, we believe you can still hear the voice of God, through the Word of God, and that the Word of God is for every man.